Rabbi Ora and congregants unroll our Torah scroll, believed to be over 200 years old.
Beit Sefer learning about Simchat Torah and preparing to search the scroll for specific words.
Searching the scroll
AARC board member and Beit Sefer parent Caroll Ullmann getting close to the Torah with her kids.
Dave Nelson sharing the Simchat Torah blessing.
Parading for Simchat Torah with our Etz Chaim tapestry in the lead.
This year, 2018, our Beit Sefer tried something new: A Beit Sefer Sukkah Building Sleepover. Beit Sefer families and a few prospective member families were welcomed by Carole Caplan and Michael Sosin to build our traditional sukkah, and then to sleep over under the stars at The Farm on Jennings. Five families, nine kids set up tents and spent the night. Then early Sunday morning had breakfast and welcomed the rest of Beit Sefer for learning about the four species in the lulav and other Sukkot traditions. Tremedous thanks to Matt McLane for many lessons in campout cooking, to Carol Ullmann for shopping, setting up my tent, creating the beautiful etrog suncatchers, and many other things. and to all the parents for making the Sukkot Sleepover happen. Hope the pictures convey the fun!
The sukkah building begins.
The frame of the sukkah goes up.
The sukkah walls go up
The decorating table.
Beit Sefer Director Clare Kinberg attempts to direct traffic during sukkah building.
Collecting the s’kach, roof coverings.
We learn the parts of the lulav.
The myrtle smells good.
After all the hard work, have some cookout dinner!
Parents relax and warm up by the camp fire.
The next morning: K’tanim learn about Sukkot on the farm.
G’dolim discuss how to make the sukkah a welcoming place for
ushpizin/honored guests.
Sukkot Sameah/Happy Sukkot Thanks, Fred Feinberg for all the photos.
Rabbi Ora singing with the Beit Sefer
Enrollment is open for the 2018-2019 AARC Beit Sefer/Religious School year! On this page you will find links to both the enrollment form and the tuition form. Teachers Aaron Jackson, Shlomit Cohen and Beit Sefer Director Clare Kinberg are looking forward to a great year of building bridges. In fact, that will be our theme for the year: Livnot Gesher/Building Bridges. Bridges to our better selves, bridges to new friends, to our diverse communities, and to other faith communities.
We hope to see everyone (and any friends you have who may be thinking of joining the congregation or enrolling in Beit Sefer) at our
Annual Congregation Picnic and BBQ
August 26th, 2018
Noon to 3pm
Lillie Park North Shelter (closest to Ellsworth)
Members and Beit Sefer families, you can sign up to help with the picnic here.
The fall offers many opportunities for new families to connect with AARC and our Beit Sefer. In addition to to the picnic, we will again be having children’s services during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The first day of Beit Sefer will be September 16 at the JCC. That’s right in between Rosh Hashanah (erev RH is Sept 9) and Yom Kippur. The next weekend we’ll be building our sukkah at the Farm on Jennings as we do every year, but this year we are trying something new! We’ll build the sukkah on Saturday afternoon and stay for an optional sleep over! Please contact Clare Kinberg (ckinberg@gmail.com) or Beit Sefer Committee chair Stacy Dieve (stacyweinberg@gmail.com) with any questions, suggestions of potential new students, or with offers to help with the picnic and sukkah building/sleep over.
“Memorial Tablet and Omer Calendar” by Baruch Zvi Ring, 1904. Paper cut, pencil, ink and paint. Owned by the Jewish Museum in NYC. Baruch Zvi Ring (Ringiansky) came to Rochester from Vishya, Lithuania, in 1902. Please visit this artwork on the Jewish Museum website to learn more about the incredible intricacies in this work.
Our Beit Sefer, led by our Yeledim class (Bass, Ben, Ellie, Isaac, Joey, Miles, Molly, and their teacher, Shlomit) is collecting boxes of grains (pasta, cereal, rice, etc) to make a collective donation to Food Gatherers. We started collecting right after Passover and we will continue through Shavuot. By collecting donations for the Food Gatherers, the Yeledim are learning to connect the Jewish holiday cycle with a need in our community.
We are commanded by the Torah to bring, on the second day of Passover, a measure—an omer—of the first cutting of our barley harvest to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem as an offering to G‑d, and not to partake of that year’s grain crop until that offering is made. We then count 49 days, and on the 50th day, which is Shavuot, we bring the first of our wheat harvest as an offering to G‑d, and we do not use of the year’s wheat crop for Temple offerings until this is done. Hence, the 49-day count leading from Passover to Shavuot is called “the Counting of the Omer”—a reference to the omer of barley that was brought on the first day of the count.
(from “Grain, Growth and Goodness” by R. Shlomo Yaffe)
The Yeledim have set a goal of collecting as least 49 boxes of grain, one for each day of the Omer. And you can help! We will be collecting this Saturday, May 12th at the JCC during Second Saturday Shabbat morning services, and also at our congregational observance of Shavuot on Saturday May 19th.
AARC Congregation gets ready to hear the Megillah/Scroll of Esther, Feb 2018
Dina Kurz is all the way ready to hear the megillah, 2018
Rena Basch reads a chapter of the megillah, 2018.
And then it was Dave Nelson’s turn to read the megillah on.
The Kopalds during a musical interlude in the megillah reading
Carol Ullmann reading a chapter of the megillah, 2018
Rabbi Ora chants the megillah while Mordechai, aka Otto, holds the text.
Alan Haber unfurls the Scroll of Esther from its new case while Aziza and her mom Cara look on.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Saul and Clare deal with the aftermath of the Purim meal
Beit Sefer makes hamentashen, 2018
Miles adds the finishing touch to the hamentashen.
Beit Sefer makes hamentashen, 2018
During Purim week, AARC Beit Sefer and congregation members will be baking hamentashen for the families of Iraqi detainees. On March 3, the detainees’ legal team, which includes AARC members Margo Schlanger and Sam Bagenstos, is hosting an informational dinner for the families of detainees, and we will be providing dessert. This will be our congregation’s way of fulfilling the Purim mitzvah of mishloach manot, giving gifts of tasty treats to friends and strangers.
Opportunities to Bake
- Saturday February 24: Havdallah, Hamentashen and Hot Pot at Marcy’s. Click here to RSVP and for more details
- Sunday February 25: Beit Sefer will be baking with Nancy Meadow
- YOU can bake at your own home! Contact Clare for more details.
Here is some background on the detainees’ situation from the ACLU of Michigan. In June 2017 hundreds of Iraqis in Michigan and throughout the country were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which intended to deport them immediately to Iraq, a country where many have not lived since they were young children. Most have been living in the United States for decades, but were previously ordered removed to Iraq—either for overstaying visas or for previous criminal convictions.
As a matter of policy, the United States has not deported people to Iraq because of dangerous country conditions, and because the Iraqi government has refused to issue travel documents. In March 2017, however, Iraq agreed to accept Iraqis deported by the United States back into the country, in exchange for being removed from President Trump’s travel ban list. Suddenly, any Iraqi with an open removal order was a target.
The ACLU filed a class action lawsuit in federal court to stop the deportations on the grounds that they would likely result in persecution, torture, or even death for those deported, either because they are members of minority religions or because they are Western-affiliated.
“When the clerk calls him forward, Attorney Ed Bajoka explains he has three paths to pursue in seeking release of his client, Mukhlis Murad, who’s been detained for nearly six months. Murad is a 59-year-old suburban grandfather with numerous health problems. His adult children and his sister are in the waiting room. When asked how it’s been at home without her dad there, his 23-year-old daughter, Summer, answers swiftly and directly, ‘He’s our best friend. Murad is one of several hundred Iraqi-born U.S. residents now facing detention and deportation. Many are married to U.S. citizens. Most speak English. At least half are Chaldean and speak Aramaic — not necessarily Arabic. They are parents and grandparents, business owners, and taxpayers. Many are churchgoing Catholics.” (From the ThinkProgress article “Trump’s travel ban puts a religious minority he promised to protect in the cross hairs.”)
Hamama legal team, December 2017
In June 2017 Judge Mark Goldsmith ordered a temporary stay of deportation for Iraqis in Michigan. In July 2017 Judge Goldsmith granted an expanded preliminary injunction barring deportation of Iraqis throughout the country while they access the immigration court system, giving them time to file motions to reopen their immigration cases based on the changed country conditions or legal developments in the decades since their cases were decided.
The legal team went to court in December and asked Judge Goldsmith to order the release of these Iraqi Nationals absent a showing that any of them are a flight risk, danger to society, or face an imminent removal to Iraq. Judge Goldsmith then ordered that the government must provide bond hearings for the detained Iraqi nationals and must show by clear and convincing evidence that the detainee is a danger or a flight risk and if no bond hearing is provided, the individual must be released.
Most of the bond hearings have been completed. There have been 182 bond hearings. 119 have been granted, but 63 have been denied. However, there also a good number who were granted bond hearings, but cannot afford the bond amount.
In summary, progress has been made with reuniting many families, but a big chunk of families are still separated from their loved ones. Getting released on bond is not the end of the battle. Release just allows the individuals to work and be with their families while their individual immigration process continues.
The legal team in Hamama v. Adducci is ACLU of Michigan Attorneys Miriam Aukerman, Bonsitu Kitaba-Gaviglio, and Michael J. Steinberg; Legal Fellow Juan Caballero; National ACLU attorneys Lee Gelernt, Judy Rabinowitz, and Anand Balakrishnan; ACLU of Michigan Cooperating Attorneys Margo Schlanger and Sam Bagenstos of U-M Law School; Kimberly Scott and Wendy Richards of Miller Canfield; co-counsel Nadine Yousif and Nora Youkhana of CODE Legal Aid; Susan Reed of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center; and William Swor.
Seth and Kathy Kopald
AARC is starting up a new parenting group twice a month on Sunday mornings during Beit Sefer/Religious School. Parents with kids of any age are welcome, including parents of preschool and toddlers. We will offer childcare during the group meetings.
This free, parenting discussion group will be facilitated by Seth Kopald, an Internal Family Systems (IFS) practitioner, parent educator, former Montessori teacher, education consultant, and former Head of School. The Sunday morning groups will run from 9:30-11 every other week, beginning January 14th at the JCC. Seth, Kathy and their family joined AARC this past year. You can read their New Member Profile here.
Seth will introduce the IFS model in conjunction with Attachment Parenting theory. He will facilitate enriching and generative discussions about parenting with a focus on helping parents discover how their internal world affects their parenting and their level of peace and joy while parenting. Discussion will also include strategies for loving yet clear child discipline/guidance practices. Coffee available!
On January 28th, AARC Beit Sefer is co-planning a special Tu B’shvat environmental conservation program with the Jewish Cultural Society. Parents and all other members of AARC are invited to come for the event,”Bats of the World,” presented by the Organization for Bat Conservation. The fun begins at 10:30am at the JCC.
January Calendar of AARC Events
Sunday January 7, 11am JCC: AARC “Third Age” group. Friendly discussion on enhancing Jewish life for members 60 (more or less) and older. This is the second get-together of a new group initiated by the Membership Committee co-chair Marcy Epstein.
Saturday January 13: Second Saturday Shabbat Morning Service. Signup for member lunch here.
Sunday January 14, AARC Book Club, 9:45-11:30am, home of Greg Saltzman. The book will be: Mohsin Hamid, Exit West (2017) – fiction, short list for Man Booker prize.
Sunday January 14, Parenting Group led by Seth Kopald during Beit Sefer, 9:30-10:45. This group will meet every other week during Beit Sefer through February.
Sunday January 14, during Beit Sefer, Amit Weitzer, Executive Director of Habonim Dror Camp Tavor, will present about camp to students and parents.
January 26, Fourth Friday Kabbalat Shabbat, with tot shabbat and potluck, at the JCC.
January 28th 10:30am, JCC: Beit Sefer and all congregation “Bats Around the World” environmental conservation program co-sponsored with Jewish Cultural Society.
The Sukkah is UP at The Farm on Jennings. Carole invites anyone to come and have a meal in it, and relax and enjoy the beautiful weather and land.
Havdalah in the Sukkah
Saturday October 7
5:30pm to 7:30pm (Sunset is at 7:05).
We’ll have a potluck dinner, and close with havdallah.
Bring a dish to share. Musicians, bring your instruments.
AARC Sukkah raising begins, Oct 1 2017 at The Farm on Jennings
Cooperative Hammering
The first s’kach (organic rooftop) goes up
Decorations get made
A very long chain decoration
We invite 14 Ushpizin/honored ancestral guests: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, Miriam, Deborah, Esther, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David (the kids named them all!)
AARC made a few appearances in the Washtenaw Jewish News this summer.
Here’s a profile/interview of Rabbi Ora, by Emily Eisbruch:
wjn-Sept-17-Rabbi-Ora
Here’s an article about the Beit Sefer:
WJN-JJA-17-Beit Sefer
Here’s our profile in the Summer Guide:
Guide-Jewish-Life-17-edited2
And here are the ads we ran, to go with the above.
WJN Ads Summer 2017
Shavua tov!
Second Saturday Shabbat Morning Service
Saturday September 9, 10am-noonish
Jewish Community Center of Ann Arbor
2935 Birch Hollow Dr, Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Our once a month Shabbat morning service is informal and relaxing, a lovely way to learn and share Jewish tradition while forming closer bonds of community. September’s Second Saturday will be Rabbi Ora’s first as our new rabbi.
Everyone welcome!
Annual BBQ Picnic
Sunday September 10, Noon-2ish
From the Annual Picnic 2015
Lillie Park
4365 Platt Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48108 (Platt and Ellsworth)
Accessible North Shelter
AARC will provide drinks, charcoal and paper products. You bring something to grill, a side dish to share, and your summer stories! The BBQ will be at a new location this year, Lillie Park.
Our annual BBQ picnic is a very nice time for all ages to relax together, introduce new people to the congregation, reconnect after summer travels.
Thinking of joining? New member? Want to meet Rabbi Ora? Everyone welcome!
First day of Beit Sefer/ Religious School
Sunday September 10, 10am – noon
Lillie Park, gather at the North Shelter.
Parents meeting 10:45-11:45
Since Beit Sefer Director, Clare Kinberg is teaching the K’tanim (Little Ones) this year, Beit Sefer Committee Chair, Becky Ball will convene the meeting.
Please, at least one parent from each family attend.
